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Discover the hidden side of everything with Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. Special features include series like “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” as well as a live game show, “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.”

Discover the hidden side of everything with Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the Freakonomics books. Each week, Freakonomics Radio tells you things you always thought you knew (but didn’t) and things you never thought you wanted to know (but do) — from the economics of sleep to how to become great at just about anything. Dubner speaks with Nobel laureates and provocateurs, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, and various other underachievers. Special features include series like “The Secret Life of a C.E.O.” as well as a live game show, “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know.”

Customer Reviews

Absolutely The Best!!!!!

Love the podcast. Great work guys, keep it!!!!

Jacquerina12225
, 05/20/2019

Pregnancy data

Writing as an OB/GYN...your guest economist fails to recognize that for years pregnant patients have been a protected population in regards to research. And therefore, she will be hard pressed to find a lot of hard data on recommendations. So that’s important history to note. We have to extrapolate and use common sense.

CLT Wook
, 05/19/2019

Missed a very important question on 23andMe episode

I’ve been very concerned about the privacy of a person’s DNA when they use these home test kits. To the point that I read the complete terms of use of 23andMe.

The host, Dubner asked about privacy and a persons data being sold to insurance companies or employers. The CEO said that per their policy, a customer must explicitly consent to their individual DNA data being used by 3rd parties. Great...

So what about 10 years from now when 23andMe has data on 200 million people and sells the business to a medical insurance company for a couple billion dollars? 23andMe’s terms of use says that the data becomes the property of any future owner. Kiss your ability to get medical insurance goodbye if you have a hint of costly disease in your DNA.

Such an obvious follow up question for someone as savvy as Dubner and it was entirely overlooked. Intentional? Hmm... I hope this show doesn’t become another advertising/marketing tool for companies trying to connect with a audience that trusts Freakonomics Radio.